Living

• Oct 29, 2023

  A (mostly culinary) stroll through Italy

  Just a list of towns and eats.

• Mar 28, 2022

  What's in a rating?

  I often use the average ratings of books/movies from Goodreads/IMDB in order to decide what to read/watch next. Unfortunately, if there are not enough ratings, the average rating is often inflated, and it seems to decrease with the number of ratings. Plots of two datasets of books and movies show that the story is slightly more complicated.

• Mar 4, 2022

  Dulce et decorum

  Since last week some verses are rattling around in my head. Initially I felt that they did not properly honor the resistance of the Ukrainians. Today, reading some refugees’ testimonials, I am convinced that these words are still relevant, even after more than 100 years.

  Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
  Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
  Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
  And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

• Feb 27, 2022

  Thoughts about modern architecture

  If asked about traditional Romanian architecture one often thinks about something like this:

  

  Most houses in Romanian villages actually look like this:

  

  

• Jan 22, 2022

  Geographic centers of Romanian counties

  For those lacking travel destinations I have a map with geographical centers (centroids) of each Romanian county. For the moment only latitude and longitude to be checked in Google Maps.
• Jun 19, 2021

  The interviewer's solution

  Recently the “secretary problem” came to my attention. It is extremely interesting given that it can have practical applications for many real life decisions and the solution seems counterintuitive to me.

• May 30, 2021

  Quantifying self, browser edition

  Some time ago I modified a Chrome extension to track the time spent on individual web pages. During the past year data for 80K visits to different pages on 3982 domains has been registered, together with the time actively spent on them.

• Nov 9, 2020

  A library of 3D models

  Some time ago I got access to a 3D printer. After learning to use the Blender software I put together several decorative 3D models. Some are even printed.

  Tiles for a (imperfect) Penrose tiling

  
• Oct 20, 2020

  Listen to them

  In the past few months I have been seen more and more examples of virulent racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ reactions in the Romanian press. My unpleasant surprise was to find such attitudes in a part of the Romanian society which I thought shared my ideas on politics and society. One can find many educated, well-paid, westward-looking young people showing a profound misunderstanding concerning the problems of minorities (of all kinds). It is really sad to read on channels I used to trust climato-sceptic, anti-feminist and anti-“cancel-culture” articles, or to hear that people I thought to be the future of Romania expressing homophobic or anti-vaccination ideas.

• Oct 13, 2020

  Good to eat

  Breakfast: egg-avocado toast

  • buttered toast
  • spreadable cheese
  • half avocado mashed
  • tomato slices
  • feta cheese
  • bacon rashes
  • fried egg

  Stack the ingredients in this order.

• Oct 10, 2020

  maggie and milly and molly and may

  …

  went down to the beach (to play one day)